On 19 September 1985, The 917th Air Refueling Squadron was consolidated with the 617th Bombardment Squadron. With the inactivation of Strategic Air Command in 1992, the squadron transferred to Air Mobility Command, but two years later it was inactivated.

Officers of the 477th Bombardment Group at Freeman Field, Indiana, about to board air transports to take them to Godman Field, Kentucky.[a 2]

The 477th group was reactivated in January 1944 at Selfridge Field, Michigan as the "first colored bombardment group in the Army Air Forces" with personnel drawn from Selfridge and from Tuskegee Army Air Field, Alabama.[4] The group moved to Godman Field, Kentucky, just after 617th was activated in April.[1] The unit encountered problems attributed to the lack of experienced personnel, which required even basic training in military occupational specialties to be conducted within the unit, rather than at technical training schools.[5]

Although designated a "colored" squadron, some officers, including the squadron leadership were white. The initial commander of the 477th group enforced racial segregation on the posts where the squadron was stationed. The squadron's members were involved in the civil rights action referred to as the Freeman Field Mutiny; the "mutiny" came about when African-American aviators became outraged enough by racial segregation in the military that they resorted to mass insistence that military regulations prohibiting discrimination be enforced. The Freeman Field Mutiny was a crucial event in the African-American struggle for equal civil rights.[6]

The 917th Air Refueling Squadron was activated on 1 May 1959 by Strategic Air Command (SAC) at Biggs Air Force Base, Texas and equipped with KC-135 Stratotankers. This was part of SAC's program to disperse its Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers over a larger number of bases, thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike.[9] When the squadron was activated, the 95th wing was in the process of converting from the Convair B-36 Peacemaker to the B-52 and the 917th's tankers were briefly the only operational aircraft assigned to the wing.[10] Starting in 1960, one third of the squadron's aircraft were maintained on fifteen-minute alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike. This was increased to half the squadron's aircraft in 1962.[11] The 917th continued to maintain an alert commitment when not deployed until the end of the Cold War.[12]

The squadron mission was to provide air refueling to the B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers of its parent 95th Bombardment Wing and other USAF units as directed. This included support for Operation Chrome Dome missions.[13] The squadron was also tasked from time to time to perform other missions, including emergency aeromedical evacuation flights.[14] In its first year of operation, the squadron was named the best refueling unit in SAC at the annual bombing/navigation competition.[15] The squadron supported reflex deployments to forward Tanker Task Forces beginning in 1960,[16] including deployments to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska and the Alaskan Task Force.[17] The squadron also supported the European and Pacific Tanker Task Forces.[18] During the Vietnam War, the squadron deployed to the Pacific to support Operation Arc Light and the Young Tiger Task Force.[19]

In 1985, the 96th wing converted from the B-52 to the B-1B Lancer and the unit focused on training on techniques for refueling the new bomber.[25] Later that year, the 917th Air Refueling Squadron and the 617th Bombardment Squadron were consolidated.[26]

Six of the squadron's aircraft and associated crews deployed to Southwest Asia in the fall of 1990 to support Operation Desert Shield.[27]

In September 1991 SAC implemented the Objective Wing reorganization and the wing's operational squadrons, including the 917th, were assigned to the 96th Operations Group.[12] The assignment lasted only until June 1992, when Air Mobility Command took over the air refueling mission from SAC, and the squadron was reassigned to the 43d Operations Group, which was located at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana,[28] although the squadron remained at Dyess until 1994, when it was inactivated.[29]